Well, it's time for another so-called "Earth Day" today. Today is the day the enviro-idiots take a short break from hugging trees, coming out of the woodwork for the most holy day in their religion of Gaia worship. Even Google, the ever-liberal search engine, is all greened-up with a vegetative logo complete with peaceful (clean) flowing streams.
As a Christian, I take stewardship of our world seriously. God, who created Earth and all that is on it, put humanity in charge of it. Anything God has created deserves a measure of respect, and God had made it clear that when He delegates authority, He expects that duty to be taken seriously.
The natural resources of Earth are ours to use, to make our lives better and more comfortable. As we utilize those resources, we should do so responsibly. We shouldn't take more than we need, and we should harvest those resources in the most efficient, responsible manner possible. If we make a mess in the harvesting of those resources, we should clean it up for the benefit of humanity the rest of creation, and also out of respect for the Creator.
But we should not worship this planet or anything on it.
I fear...no, I'm convinced that many in our culture have moved far beyond an emphasis on responsible use and care of Earth to a position which dabbles with or crosses the line into worship of created things.
We see this unbalanced view manifest across a broad spectrum ranging from an inordinate fear of using natural resources, to an outright worship of Gaia and even the belief by some that humans are a parasite on the planet that must be eradicated (thought I don't see any of them at the head of the line).
Environmental hysteria has become so overweening that we have former vice presidents fabricating sci-fi fantasies of man made "global warming" with unfounded pronouncements of global disaster foisted upon us.
Even Patrick Moore, one of the founders and leaders of Greenpeace, came to a point where he couldn't stomach the environmental insanity anymore and left the organization. He now says of the organization he created: "Greenpeace has evolved into an organization of extremism and politically motivated agendas."
These eco-centric views are not only sacrilegious, they make things unnecessarily difficult for many people who are struggling to get by.
In fact, the economic prosperity which is fueled by the use of those resources is the best vehicle for a balanced environmental management program. Enviro-idiots cannot grasp this concept, but we have seen it played out over and over.
Despite the pronouncements of doom from the America-hating Left, the United States is one of the cleanest countries on the planet. On the other side of the coin, former communist countries (an ideology that most eco-idiots are in love with) were some of the dirtiest, most polluting places ever seen. The environmental damage seen in the former Soviet Union and former Eastern Bloc countries was appalling, once the Iron Curtain came down.
The same scenario has been played out in poor, developing countries around the world. Nations with faltering industry and economies are the dirtiest in the world. As Steven F. Hayward says in his column at Human Events today, "Economic growth turns out to be the prerequisite for environmental protection—a fact that most environmentalists now grudgingly admit."
It seems every time the tree huggers come up with a new idea to save the planet, it ends up causing more problems.
The recycling craze was supposed to save the planet. We were all supposed to buy our 48 different blue recycling bins (and put them where around our house, I'm still unclear about) and spend our massive amounts of free time cleaning out bottles and cans and separating paper, etc. And we are supposed to pay extra for trash pickup, or take our garbage down to a community collection center and ensure it stays separated there, or both. But as a recent article from the Ludwig von Mises Institute points out, this exercise tends to bring other problems like increased vehicle emissions and rat infestations, with reports of increased energy consumption to accomplish the recycling effort. And in the end, it only comes out on the plus side economically when landfill fees become exorbitantly high.
In the last couple of years we've seen a big push to switch from the incandescent light bulbs to the supposedly enviro-friendly florescent spiral bulbs. Though I'm the last guy you'd expect to sign up as an eco-warrior, I replaced all the bulbs in my house through attrition (I wanted to save some money). I then found out that the claims they'll last 5 years are hooey, having had to replace 2 or 3 in the first year. Then we learned that if one of the bulbs breaks, you have to call out a hazmat team to clean up the spilled mercury--the same mercury which they now say will doom the planet if we throw away our bulbs in the landfill.
Remember 20 years or so ago, the plastic bags at the grocery store were supposed to get us away from those evil paper bags and save the planet? Well now the latest enviro-cry is that the plastic bags are evil and are destroying the planet.
Enviro-insanity may have even contributed to the deaths aboard two space shuttles. According to the Heartland Institute and other sources, the O-rings which caused the 1986 Challenger disaster, and the foam which caused the 2003 Columbia disaster, were inferior enviro-friendly substitutes for superior technological methods.
Just like the other so-called scientific voices that can't decide from one day to the next whether something will kill us or cure us, so the environmental movement thrashes about in scientific and theological ignorance, leaving a trail of confusion and more challenging living behind.
God gave humans dominion over the earth and all that is in it. Accordingly, we have a right to use the trees God planted. We have a right to use the oil God put in the earth. We have a right to use the coal God put here. We should use them as responsibly as is feasibly possible, but we should use them without hesitation until a cleaner energy source is devised.
It's time to get back to worshipping the creator rather than created things.
If we'd kept our focus there in the first place, we wouldn't have to contend with all the environmental silliness plaguing our culture today. And we'd likely have a clean environment without paying $4.00 for gas.
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Tuesday, April 22, 2008
On Earth Day, Idiots Stop Hugging Trees to Come Out of the Woodwork
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